Written by Marcus Roth, Senior Director of Email Marketing, Automation, and Content at Simplicity Lone Beacon.
For over five years, one financial advisor has diligently sent monthly emails to “unengaged” prospects—prospects who hadn’t opened an email for at least 120 days. While it may seem like an uphill commitment, it finally paid off with one remarkable outcome, showing the true potential of sticking with unengaged emails, even if they don’t produce the best email metrics. Advisors: Here’s how it happened and why this strategy matters.
The Breakthrough Moment
One of the advisors we, Simplicity Lone Beacon, work with, had a prospective client in their database who had first attended a webinar but became disengaged, meaning they hadn’t acted with the brand for about 120 days. As a result, that prospect received an unengaged email, warning that their subscription would end soon if they didn’t respond. The subject line caught their attention, prompting them to open the email. Inside, the email content highlighted unique services and actionable steps the advisor offered to help clients regain control of their financial futures. This led to an unexpected but powerful outcome.
The prospective client re-engaged, ultimately setting up an appointment with the advisor.
A Meaningful Win
This one new client, alone, made the advisor’s five-year effort worthwhile, bringing in an opportunity to manage $15 million in investable assets. Even if this were the only result from years of unengaged sends, (which it wasn’t) the ROI generated justifies persistence and faith in the digital marketing and email nurturing process.
The Takeaway
Sending unengaged emails consistently can seem fruitless at times. But this success story shows that these efforts can indeed pay off, often when you least expect it. You never know when an email will hit someone’s inbox at the perfect time to spark interest, re-establish trust, and even lead to a significant business opportunity.
About the Author: Marcus Roth is Simplicity Lone Beacon’s Senior Director of Email, Data, Automation & Content. Marcus has a unique experience in B2B and B2C start-up companies ranging from enterprise-level market research of Artificial Intelligence to self-defense eCommerce products. His experience in AI market research brought him, and his research, to INTERPOL, The United Nations, and Harvard University.
